faces only the perfect images of the men who had shared her pillow in the past. We rest uncertain whether the confession of her sins is really a sincere one; rather we get the impression that she took delight in deceiving other people. The last phrase of the book—"I may have lived in the world by selling my body, but is my heart polluted?"—leaves us doubtful as to her sincere conversion. She retired to a religious cell, not because she found God or because she longed for salvation, but simply because she had exhausted all the pleasures of the world.
The realism of this book, its implied social criticism, the lively amoral character of the protagonist—her lust for life, physical intensity, and rebellious nature—all of these suggest the natural approach to the picaresque novel which appeared in Europe at about the same time.
As generally happens in the picaresque novel, Saikaku's story is told by the heroine with realistic detachment as if she were speaking of somebody else doomed for a wretched end.
Saikaku also wrote moralizing novels: Buke Giri Monogatari (Tale of Virtuous Conduct) and Nijushi Fuko (Twenty-four Examples of Unfilial Behaviour). He even tried detective stories in the manner of old Chinese tales of judicial trials. His Honcho Oin Hiji (Records of Trials Held beneath a Cherry Tree) is the most famous example and continues to be popular even today.
Saikaku was the great fiction writer of the Genroku era (1688-1704), just as Basho was its poet and Chikamatsu its playwright; the three are the dominant figures of a remarkable intellectual revival which George Sansom calls a "modest renaissance."
In Japan, Saikaku sometimes has been compared with the author of The Tale of Genji. Although it is probably an exaggerated comparison, to a Western reader Saikaku is certainly one of the most interesting Japanese writers; he is the possessor of a powerful realism, intellectual freedom, irreverence, and independence from conservative themes and canons of traditional writing.
Ogai Mori observed that Saikaku does not confine himself to eroticism, like Casanova, and that he ascribes to eroticism an aesthetic significance, like Boccaccio. We should say today that Saikaku's erotic novels are tempered with a feeling of humanism.
Howard Hibbett, in the interesting article "Saikaku and Burlesque Fiction," compares Saikaku to Daniel Defoe, as both were first to deal in detail with the economic life of the people of their time. Saikaku gives us a vivid, picture of Japanese bourgeois society in the second half of the seventeenth century, and Defoe has written of the English middle class under Queen Anne.1 There are also resemblances between Saikaku and Boccaccio, from their erotic streaks to the loose methods of constructing their works.
Saikaku has been compared with Rabelais: both have a strong, colourful humour of popular vein, the same buffoonery, the same burst of laughter. Both men act the double role of fool and sage. Both feel the same pithy pleasure of living by the flesh and by the mind. There is in their books a force of nature, a deep energy, a healthy joviality and confidence in life; but the novels of Saikaku are woven in sentimentality (the life of the heart is the thread of the plot) while Rabelais tells no sentimental stories. Woman as a centre and source of sentimental life is not known to French literature until the second half of the seventeenth century. Rabelais has been considered by many the best incarnation of French genius; hardly could we say the same of Saikaku as regarded by the Japanese. He may be more akin to Abbé Brantôme, author of Femmes Galantes, who, one century before, displayed the same gallantry, dissipation, ardour for all aspects of love, and psychological realism—though with more depth of analysis and finer wit.
Kiseki Ejima (1667-1736)
Saikaku's most remarkable successor was Kiseki, who explored the picaresque novel in new and interesting ways. He was especially preoccupied with portraying types from the floating world—the dissolute characters which we know already from the books of Saikaku. But Kiseki has portrayed new characters in his love stories of the licentious quarters of Kyoto, Osaka, Edo, and provincial towns. His stories, bringing a new vitality to the picaresque novel, became very popular. He borrowed from Saikaku, but he had less brilliance, less imagination and originality.
In Keisei Iroshamisen (The Courtesan's Amorous Shamisen), Kiseki gives a lively and realistic description of the world of pleasure; this work was followed by Keisei Kintanki (Courtesans Forbidden to Lose Their Temper), which was the most successful. In the latter he tried to shock his readers by combining the scandalous stories of the world of pleasure with witty Buddhist theological digressions.
We have already seen in Saikaku's works how the courtesan and actor were the principal personages of the "floating world, and that they had a social importance unimaginable in the West. A very serious historian, Sir George Sansom, writes:
There was a strict hierarchy among courtesans, whose ranks and appellations were solemnly observed. They were treated with forms of great respect, attended by richly dressed waiting maids and hedged about by an elaborate ritual. From time to time they made public progress through the streets of the quarter, in stately processions, which were eagerly witnessed by thousands of spectactors from all parts of the city.2
Kiseki also was certainly under the influence of the picture-books of the ukiyo-e school when he wrote novels containing psychological portraits: Seken Musuko Katagi (Characters of Worldly Young Men) in 1715, Seken Musume Katagi (Characters of Worldly Young Women) two years later, and finally the best after three more years, Ukiyo Oyaji Katagi (Characters of Old Men of the Floating World).
Kiseki declared that the purpose of the first of these books was to add to "the advancement of filial piety." This assertion by Kiseki appears rather cynical. Morality served the satirical vein of Kiseki as conveniently as it had served Saikaku.
Ikku Jippensha (1765-1831)
About a half century later, Ikku Jippensha wrote Hizakurige (Shank's Mare). This is still nearer the spirit of the Western picaresque novel than the works of Saikaku or Kiseki. It is one of the best works of humorous or satirical fiction. Shank's Mare is the story of the adventures of Yajirobei and his friend Kitahachi on a long journey along the Tokaido from Tokyo to Kyoto. Yaji, as the first traveller is more familiarly called, had squandered his fortune, abandoned his wife, and run away from his creditors. Kitahachi was once a strolling actor and later the apprentice to a merchant. The book is the description of the leisurely journey of the two heroes, who enjoy the beauties of the landscape, taste the famous local delicacies, visit the temples of renown, and observe different customs and manners along the road. Shank's Mare is both a guidebook and a book of adventure. Ikku produced several sequels dealing with travel in Japan; his works comprise 311 diverse books. Shank's Mare is impregnated with a lively humour, one comic episode following after another.
The personalities of the two heroes are developed, through a great number of incidents revealing their vigour, vulgarity, hot tempers, foolishness, and disarming naïveté. The farcical humour gives the book its predominant tone of gaiety as it is woven into many imaginative comic episodes and unusual situations. This chain of funny situations, without relief of a different note, makes the book monotonous at times and even tiring; as it contains no contrasts, it shows no diversity.
According to a popular legend (and contrary to contemporary writers who say that he was the dullest of companions), Ikku was a man of gay spirit and humour, and a great practical joker. The last prank in his life gives an idea of the many contained in his book. It is said that when his faithful disciples mournfully prepared his funeral and when the Buddhist cremation of his body began, fireworks suddenly exploded: he had concealed them in his death-robes as the last hilarious joke for his friends. This anecdote gives an idea of the tremendous vivacity of Ikku's spirit.
THE PICARESQUE NOVEL AND UKIYO-E PAINTING
The amazing variety and vitality of the floating world, ukiyo, not only influenced the writers, but also had a deep fascination for a number of artists.
